Imidacloprid-Induced Impairment of Mushroom Bodies and Behavior of the Native Stingless Bee Melipona quadrifasciata anthidioides
Hudson V. V. Tomé,Gustavo Ferreira Martins,Maria Augusta Pereira Lima,Lucio Antonio de Oliveira Campos,Raul Narciso C. Guedes +4 more
Reads0
Chats0
TLDR
The lethal effects of imidacloprid on native stingless bees are demonstrated and evidence of novel serious sublethal effects that may compromise colony survival is provided.Abstract:
Declines in pollinator colonies represent a worldwide concern. The widespread use of agricultural pesticides is recognized as a potential cause of these declines. Previous studies have examined the effects of neonicotinoid insecticides such as imidacloprid on pollinator colonies, but these investigations have mainly focused on adult honey bees. Native stingless bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae: Meliponinae) are key pollinators in neotropical areas and are threatened with extinction due to deforestation and pesticide use. Few studies have directly investigated the effects of pesticides on these pollinators. Furthermore, the existing impact studies did not address the issue of larval ingestion of contaminated pollen and nectar, which could potentially have dire consequences for the colony. Here, we assessed the effects of imidacloprid ingestion by stingless bee larvae on their survival, development, neuromorphology and adult walking behavior. Increasing doses of imidacloprid were added to the diet provided to individual worker larvae of the stingless bee Melipona quadrifasciata anthidioides throughout their development. Survival rates above 50% were only observed at insecticide doses lower than 0.0056 µg active ingredient (a.i.)/bee. No sublethal effect on body mass or developmental time was observed in the surviving insects, but the pesticide treatment negatively affected the development of mushroom bodies in the brain and impaired the walking behavior of newly emerged adult workers. Therefore, stingless bee larvae are particularly susceptible to imidacloprid, as it caused both high mortality and sublethal effects that impaired brain development and compromised mobility at the young adult stage. These findings demonstrate the lethal effects of imidacloprid on native stingless bees and provide evidence of novel serious sublethal effects that may compromise colony survival. The ecological and economic importance of neotropical stingless bees as pollinators, their susceptibility to insecticides and the vulnerability of their larvae to insecticide exposure emphasize the importance of studying these species.read more
Citations
More filters
Journal ArticleDOI
Effects of neonicotinoids and fipronil on non-target invertebrates
L. Pisa,V. Amaral-Rogers,Luc P. Belzunces,Jean-Marc Bonmatin,Craig A. Downs,Dave Goulson,David P. Kreutzweiser,Christian H. Krupke,Matthias Liess,Melanie McField,Christy A. Morrissey,D. A. Noome,Josef Settele,Noa Simon-Delso,Noa Simon-Delso,John D. Stark,J.P. van der Sluijs,J.P. van der Sluijs,H Van Dyck,Martin Wiemers +19 more
TL;DR: Enough knowledge exists to conclude that existing levels of pollution with neonicotinoids and fipronil resulting from presently authorized uses frequently exceed the lowest observed adverse effect concentrations and are thus likely to have large-scale and wide ranging negative biological and ecological impacts on a wide range of non-target invertebrates in terrestrial, aquatic, marine and benthic habitats.
Journal ArticleDOI
Neonicotinoids, bee disorders and the sustainability of pollinator services
Jeroen P. van der Sluijs,Noa Simon-Delso,Dave Goulson,Laura Maxim,Jean-Marc Bonmatin,Luc P. Belzunces +5 more
TL;DR: The limited available data suggest that neonicotinoids are likely to exhibit similar toxicity to virtually all other wild insect pollinators, therefore a transition to pollinator-friendly alternatives to neonicotine is urgently needed for the sake of the sustainability of pollinator ecosystem services.
Journal ArticleDOI
A worldwide survey of neonicotinoids in honey
Edward A. D. Mitchell,Blaise Mulhauser,Matthieu Mulot,Aline Mutabazi,Gaétan Glauser,Alexandre Aebi +5 more
TL;DR: The contamination of honey with neonicotinoid compounds occurred at levels considered safe for human consumption, but the contamination confirms the inundation of bees and their environments with these pesticides, despite some recent efforts to decrease their use.
Journal ArticleDOI
An update of the Worldwide Integrated Assessment (WIA) on systemic insecticides. Part 2: impacts on organisms and ecosystems.
Lennard Pisa,Dave Goulson,En-Cheng Yang,David W. Gibbons,Francisco Sánchez-Bayo,Edward A. D. Mitchell,Alexandre Aebi,Jeroen P. van der Sluijs,Jeroen P. van der Sluijs,Chris J.K. MacQuarrie,Chiara Giorio,Elizabeth Y. Long,Melanie McField,Maarten Bijleveld van Lexmond,Jean-Marc Bonmatin +14 more
TL;DR: This review concludes with a summary of impacts on the ecosystem services and functioning, particularly on pollination, soil biota, and aquatic invertebrate communities, thus reinforcing the previous WIA conclusions.
Journal ArticleDOI
Why Bees Are So Vulnerable to Environmental Stressors
Simon Klein,Amélie Cabirol,Amélie Cabirol,Jean-Marc Devaud,Andrew B. Barron,Mathieu Lihoreau +5 more
TL;DR: It is discussed how understanding the relationships between the actions of stressors on the nervous system, individual cognitive impairments, and colony decline can inform constructive interventions to sustain bee populations.
References
More filters
Journal ArticleDOI
The efficiency of systematic sampling in stereology and its prediction
TL;DR: A set of very simple estimators of efficiency are presented and illustrated with a variety of biological examples and a nomogram for predicting the necessary number of points when performing point counting is provided.
Journal ArticleDOI
The Sublethal Effects of Pesticides on Beneficial Arthropods
TL;DR: The different types of sublethal effects on beneficial arthropods, focusing mainly on honey bees and natural enemies, are characterized, and the methods used in these studies are described.
Book
The Bees of the World
TL;DR: This extensive update of his definitive reference, Charles D. Michener reveals a diverse fauna that numbers more than 17,000 species and ranges from the common honeybee to rare bees that feed on the pollen of a single type of plant.
Journal ArticleDOI
A Metagenomic Survey of Microbes in Honey Bee Colony Collapse Disorder
Diana Cox-Foster,Sean Conlan,Edward C. Holmes,Edward C. Holmes,Gustavo Palacios,Jay D. Evans,Nancy A. Moran,Phenix Lan Quan,Thomas Briese,Mady Hornig,David M. Geiser,Vince Martinson,Dennis vanEngelsdorp,Dennis vanEngelsdorp,Abby L. Kalkstein,Andrew T. Drysdale,Jeffrey Hui,Junhui Zhai,Liwang Cui,Stephen K. Hutchison,Jan Fredrik Simons,Michael Egholm,Jeffery S. Pettis,W. Ian Lipkin +23 more
TL;DR: The observation that irradiated combs from affected colonies can be repopulated with naive bees suggests that infection may contribute to colony collapse disorder (CCD).
Journal ArticleDOI
Crop pollination from native bees at risk from agricultural intensification
TL;DR: It was found that diversity was essential for sustaining the service, because of year-to-year variation in community composition, and conservation and restoration of bee habitat are potentially viable economic alternatives for reducing dependence on managed honey bees.